Manatee Dive-Crystal River FINAL

Here is the final info for the Manatee Dive in Crystal River.
You will need to contact Capt. Suzie Holstead for your seat rez on the boat.
You will need to contact the Port Hotel Marina for your room rez.
Rate info:
Capt. Suzie's Manatee tour rate- $22.50 for a planned 24 attendees.
Captsuzieholstead@yahoo.com
(352)586-8068 Book your rez soon.
She does not have the capability to run credit cards, so please bring cash.
We will have two boats and two Captains available. More if needed.
The rate for the rest of the day will depend on how long we need these AFTER the tour, and how many people will be staying on board.

Port Hotel-This is a 4pm hold for the 10th.
If you want the room reserved, it has to be paid for by 4pm on Friday the 10th of December.
Call Theresa at the hotel, tell them you're with Scubaboard, and pay by card.
(352)795-1447
8 rooms on personal hold for Suzie, so fill them quick, please.
(under "Scubaboard" at the Port Hotel and Marina)
(Friday the 10th, Saturday the 11th) ($55/night for dive group)

We will be meeting at Cravings on the Water Restuarant (right next to the Best Western)
at 7am on Saturday morning 12/11/04.
You can bring dive gear if you want, but all you're gonna need is mask/fins/snorkel. If you want to rent the boat/dive that afternoon, thats fine. We'll drop off the morning snorkelers and then we can pick up the bigger dive gear that afternoon when there are less people on the boat. It will just be more comfortable that way.
Most of this thread is cut directly from a PM from Suzie. Thank you very much for all the help in getting this going. Anyone with further questions may contact her at the above info, or myself.
DeepSeaWolf (352) 281 4879 Cellphone

Ken - is this the final, final thread then???

Thanks for putting this together, will make arrangements tomorrow to join the merry gang in the manatee BBQ line.

...unless a final, final, FINAL thread pops up. Nah, this is the final, final one.
I will be making arrangements for someone to sit on my kid for the weekend if possible. Otherwise, we will probably only be joining you for Saturday. I can hardly wait until we get the toddler trained for SASY. We're getting him a wetsuit for the April Megadive, but it's too cold for him to join us during the winter months. His face tends to turn purple when his core temp gets around 20 degrees for some strange reason.
I thought cryotherapy was a good thing.
For the manatee dive, we will have two boats. One holds 14 people, one holds 10. I imagine there will be at least that many people going. If we have more people show, we can snag another boat and Captain. Or we can drag people behind us by their hair.
Mmmm BBQ! Any manatees we spear will be cleaned after we get ashore. They have some law about keeping it intact until port. I guess so they can measure the antlers if it's a male. I never understood that. LOOK AT THE TUSKS!!! Only the Males have the boat hull ripping tusks, DUH!!!!
I will NOT be posting a list of attendees as I have no idea who has reserved a spot for the boat/contacted Suzie. She will keep me aprised of how close to max we are, or if we need more people. If all else fails, I may be bringing at least one more person with us. In a pinch, I can get with another LDS and grab a few people to fill spots. I am leaving it open until we get as many SBers as possible first. Last I knew, there were about ten people that had confirmed with me that they WERE coming. That leaves quite a few openings. We are NOT afraid of having a maximum turnout with NO seats available. We are only concerned that people will back out, leaving empty boats. I doubt that will happen though as this is a LONG awaited event for many people. I'll know more within the next few weeks.
Simon, I found a new sauce that works well on protected species. It's made from a blend of liquified snow peas, and wasabi. Kind of like a spicy sloppy joe mix for shredded meats, but I call it "Green-Peas". (listening for the groans)
I hope ScubaDilla shows up. I hear we may have a few dozen or more T's in the area for him to get his pic taken with.

simbrooks:

Ken - is this the final, final thread then???

Thanks for putting this together, will make arrangements tomorrow to join the merry gang in the manatee BBQ line.

Click to expand...

Ya wanna take care of my end too and we'll work it out later, since I'm stuck in the tundra up here?

DSW--I'm betting we'll run into the 'Dilla sometime over the weekend--he just can't resist your cooking skills!! I'll bring some marshmallows for him too.

How about a little calendar action? That way people can say they are coming on a roll call. I will start one up. Not sure quite how the sunday deal will work, let us know what plans you have or have been put forward. Not sure about whether to book for two nights or just friday - depends on whether people are getting together for anything on sunday! I was thinking a Rainbow River drift dive - everyone seemed to enjoy the Ginnie drift dive, can we organise a boat with Capt Suzie for this? What kind of price (hopefully about the same if not less than the saturday snorkeling)? I havent done that dive in about a year now, would be nice to do it again. I'm sure we can car pool up to the KP Hole park entrance, which is $2 to enter (does the state park annual card work on that too?). Just another thought to make sunday worth staying for and to book up saturday night at the hotel.

The wife and I have made reservations with the hotel for Friday and Saturday. Also emailed Suzie about the snorkel trip to confirm spots. Simon we are up for doing some diving (WHATEVER,WHEREVER) second half of saturday and or sunday. If some of the locals join us and know the KINGS BAY area real good, renting a pontoon boat for the day and splitting the cost would give us the best bang for the buck. However the rainbow drift dive is a nice option if we have fewer people. The calender thing is a good idea and would let everyone know how BIG or small this thing is going to get.
I'm SURE Krista that the marshmellows are for scubadilla, lol.

I just sent email for one spot...checking with a friend of mine here to see if he wants to go too. Looking forward to meeting you guys. We'll be driving up early Saturday morning from Lakeland.

Paul

For those who don't know, look under "scubaboard" next to "home" and "support us" in the bar above. Go to "calendar" then look up the DeepSeaWolf Post on December 11. You have the option of logging in as attending. Simon, that's an awesome SB feature that I keep forgeting about. THX dude!

Just booked up for a room and two spots on the boat, i asked about the afternoon dives and what might be going on sunday, even a Rainbow River dive and this was the reply i got (my day notes in italics):

CaptSuzie's email:

As far as that afternoon {saturday}, I am taking people out for dives ar cruises. Get with Ken (DeepSeaWolf) on the Board to see if you can get with his afternoon group that he is putting together. He has the prices for that also.

Re:Rainbow river {was thinking sunday} - I'll have my boats busy with the Scuba board groupin Crystal River on that Sunday. If you wanna do a Rainbow River drift, definately call American Pro. They do that all the time.

Click to expand...

So what/who do we arrange with regarding afternoon diving? Also are you planning on a second morning (sunday) with the manatees and using the pontoon boats that afternoon to dive again? I would be up for Rainbow River and dont mind trying to coordinate something with one of the other outfits in the area should Capt Suzie be out with others on CR.

dude, i'm there